


Never Face Too Much Alone

by lionheart8



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Robin and Steve Are Best Friends, plus interactions with kids and jonathan, robin opens up more, steve feels bad about his past, they have a heart to heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 22:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19732927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionheart8/pseuds/lionheart8
Summary: Steve didn’t need reminding, he knew how much of an asshole he was in the past. Everything he did now were done basically to make up for that times. Turned out no matter how good he was now he was never going to be able to make people forget about the terribleness that was the King Steve days.(basically Steve and Robin becoming further best friends)





	Never Face Too Much Alone

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i just couldn't resist writing about the best friendship of s3 that was robin and steve!
> 
> i thought of like a multiple fic ideas and basically combined them here.
> 
> steve still feels bad about his past, robin comforts him, she opens up more and he supports her
> 
> also steve supports the kids as much as he can
> 
> and a little closure with jonathan and steve
> 
> so this was the longer summary.

It had been a month since “The Starcourt Mall” was destroyed. The kids were practically spending their every waking moment together. They were trying to help El and Max throughout all the pain and confusion. Mostly they tried to distract them by playing games and watching movies. Usually, they were at the Byers house (because it felt like home to most of them and it was safe). The noise of the children was helping Mrs.Byers whenever she was home too.

Today, they were again at the Byers house and since Steve was out of a job he was back to his driving duties. He was technically looking for a job but it wasn’t going well. Also, after everything that went down again he didn’t want kids walking or biking home. 

He had spent the whole day hanging out with Robin. They were mostly searching for a new job together while chatting about random stuff and picking out girls for each other. Tammy Thompson aside Robin had a good taste in girls and she knew exactly the type for Steve. Only if he was good at talking to them too. He wondered where he lost his game or more likely questioned if he had one to begin with. Robin had laughed and said that she would teach him her ways. 

Honestly, Steve didn’t know why Robin kept hanging with him. Sure all the trauma and fighting against inter dimensional monsters had the effect of bringing people together but still Steve expected her to just leave him behind. She didn’t and Steve was rightfully confused. 

Now, she had tagged along with Steve to pick up Dustin, Max, Lucas and Mike to drop them off to their houses. Her exact words were:

_“I’m friends with your children now dingus get used to it.”_

So he pulled up to the Byers house and groaned. He had told the kids he would be there at 6 PM so their instruction was to wait for him outside. It was 6:02 and that meant the little shits were going to make him wait. Robin jumped out of his car and made his way to the door so Steve had no chance but to follow her. 

Robin knocked on the door and waited jumping from one feet to the other. Of course Jonathan was the one to open the door. Steve had a civil relationship with him. They would greet each other and say good morning, good night if they saw each other on the street and that was it. 

_“I think their movie is almost done. You can wait inside.”_ Jonathan said clearly trying to be polite but he was mostly looking at Robin as he said that. 

Jonathan wasn’t looking so great, Steve noticed. He was probably tired from trying to help his mother who was pushing down her sadness about Hopper because she was trying to be strong for El. Jonathan must have been sad about Hopper but he was hiding it too even in the funeral because he was trying to support Will and the kids. Same went for Steve. He was trying to hold himself together because the kids knew Hopper better and they needed support. He didn’t have to hide how he felt about Billy because Steve didn’t feel anything about his death. Yet, he went to the funeral for Max and because the kids needed a ride. 

Robin and Steve entered the house to find the kids curled up on the couch and the floor watching their movie with full attention. They were so focused that nobody noticed Robin and Steve. Jonathan went back to the kitchen table where he was probably sitting before he got up to open the door. Steve and Robin just stuck together looking at the television screen from somewhere between the kids and Jonathan.

They were half watching the movie and half chatting. 

_“You have such a better hair than Byers dingus. I don’t know how Wheeler chose him over you.”_ Robin said with her special teasing-Steve smirk.

_“Shut up.”_ Steve said glancing back over to Jonathan to check if he heard Robin. He didn’t.

That was the moment when a character in the movie called another character the _f slur_. Steve wasn’t going to repeat that word in his thoughts either. Robin had heard it too because she was rolling her eyes in front of him. 

Without missing a beat Steve said:

_“Hey, dickheads! Don’t use that word to anybody ever.”_

With that six heads have snapped back at him. Mike nodded silently and went back to the movie. Will gulped and turned away. El was confused asking Mike which word Steve was talking about. Max nodded with a faint smile and turned back leaning against Lucas. Following Max, Lucas turned back to the TV too. Only Dustin stared at him with a big smile and wide eyes:

_“When did you come?”_

Robin who became like Steve’s right-hand-babysitter answered:

_“We have been standing here for the past five minutes dingus.”_

Yeah, Dustin earned the ‘dingus’ name too because according to Robin he was turning to a smarter mini-Steve.

At that moment without getting up and raising his head Jonathan interfered:

_“Well, you were using that word just two years ago Steve.”_

A cold breeze went through the whole room. The teenagers who were back to being immersed by their movie had turned fully back to the young adults. Steve was feeling the six pair of eyes on him as well as Robin who was silently watching him.

Steve didn’t need reminding, he knew how much of an asshole he was in the past. Everything he did now were done basically to make up for that times. Turned out no matter how good he was now he was never going to be able to make people forget about the terribleness that was the _King Steve days._

He cleared his throat:

_“I’ll wait outside.”_ he said as he walked to the front door not being able to handle the situation in the room. 

In the corner of his eye he saw Jonathan give himself a mental slap. Steve hoped Jonathan wouldn’t feel bad over that because Steve had it coming. He never actually made up with Jonathan or all those people he called names throughout high school. So everybody had every right to be upset. 

Steve let himself drop to the stairs in the porch with a big sigh. Thirty seconds later as he was reaching for the cigarette pack in his jacket pocket the door opened and Robin dropped next to him. So he decided not to smoke at the moment.

_“Nice running away there dingus.”_ she said without any smirk on.

_“Yeah, well what was I supposed to say? He was right I used the word a couple of times in the past.”_ he said shrugging and regretting not lighting up a cigarette.

Robin smacked Steve on the arm lightly:

_“The key word to focus on is ‘used to’ Harrington.”_

Steve turned to her with a scowl. He didn’t understand why Robin was nice to him.

_“Aren’t you supposed to be mad at me?”_

Robin turned to him too with a hard to read face:

_“That word is…”_ she paused and turned fully with her body at Steve, _“…bad. But you know that now and you clearly regret using it before. Trust me I have met worse people than you. Also, I think I already told you I hated you as ‘King Steve’ so.”_ she finished off with a shrug.

Maybe he was able to make just one person (around his age) forget about the terribleness that was King Steve days. Steve couldn’t help but wonder what she meant when she said she had met worse people.

_“We got something in common : I hate myself as King Steve too.”_ he said turning away from Robin again.

Even calling himself 'King Steve’ made his stomach churn. 

This time Robin bumped him on the shoulder:

_“You are not King Steve anymore.”_ she stated softly. 

That sentence would have been enough to comfort him if his mind didn’t flash him back to the question in his mind.

_“Why are you hanging out with me?”_ Steve asked suddenly turning his head to Robin in a fast motion.

She looked at him with a confused expression with her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows furrowed. It was almost like she was wondering if he was waiting for a serious answer. He was. 

It took her a few seconds to realize that. She started to play with the shoelaces of her new red converse, the one she bought with Steve after she threw her old one which was covered with blood and vomit. 

_“In case you haven’t noticed I don’t have much friends either. Like I said it’s a shock to me but I like hanging out with you dingus. Your stupidity makes me laugh.”_

She chuckled in the end so Steve joined in her chuckle too. Truthfully, he never thought about it from her side. To Steve Robin was the coolest person ever. She was smart, she always made fun of him in a way that made him laugh too, her music and movie taste was way better than him too. That meant that it never crossed his mind that Robin could have been alone as well. 

_“And you know you are the only person who knows…”_ She lowered her voice, _“…that I like girls. I think the truth serum was still in affect when I said that.”_ She said trying to force a smirk.

Steve had encountered her various smirks by now; he knew when it was a fake one. 

_“That shocked me too.”_ She made air quotes, _“That Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington didn’t give a damn about which gender I liked but rather that I liked a person with a Muppet’s voice.”_ Another forced smirk appeared on her face. 

Steve didn’t expect this either. Hawkins was a small town so like any small town it was filled with ignorant people. There were a bunch of racists and obviously the sexists and don’t forget the homophobes. It made sense that she didn’t tell anybody but it didn’t make sense to him that he was the only person to know. The circumstances and their crazy encounters with a Russian base and Russian soldiers probably caused it but nevertheless Steve felt a big responsibility over this.

He ran a hand through his famous hair:

_“Thank you for sharing that with me. I sure as hell wasn’t your first choice to tell but I hope I wasn’t a bad choice.”_

Robin finally looked up at him again with a faint smile:

_“For that, no. For a co-worker, yes.”_

Steve smiled at her too:

_“I don’t think anybody could be better at saying ‘Ahoy’ than me.”_

Robin laughed properly pointing at herself:

_“Me, dingus. I was better than you.”_

Steve laughed shaking his head and saying _“Nope.”_ multiple times. After his laugh died off he got serious again.

_“You can always talk to me.”_ He said scratching his head. Then he paused for a few seconds, he really wasn’t good at serious talk. _“And if anybody bothers you just let me know.”_

Robin smiled and rolled her eyes playfully:

_“I don’t think you can fight all the homophobes in this town. That’s basically everybody.”_

Steve put on his most smug smile and shrugged:

_“I have a bat full of nails.”_

Robin smacked him on the arm, again:

_“Which I still haven’t seen.”_

Steve thought _'hopefully you won’t ever have to see it'_ but he didn’t say it out loud. Technically, the bat rested at the trunk of his car. It never left that place after what happened last fall. This whole thing had turned into a regular instance where they were fighting off with inter dimensional monsters that came from a somewhat parallel universe every year or so. They were bound to deal with the same thing again in the next year. He really wished Robin wouldn’t be there when it happened. Nobody else needed to be a part of it than those who already were. Steve had filled her in about everything that happened the other two times and even after everything she had seen it was hard for her to comprehend. Sure she was smart but hearing about Will Byers coming back from like the dead and Eleven having superpowers would be much for everyone. Robin never mentioned having one so Steve was really wishing that she wasn’t having nightmares to the ones he was having. He already felt guilty since he dragged her into the Upside-Down mess.

_“You are, to the surprise of the 9th grade Robin, a good person Harrington, really. ”_ Robin said with a serious tone that contradicted her soft smile. 

It had been such a long time since he heard somebody call him “ _good”._ There were a lot of adjectives used to describe him (cool, handsome, dumb, douchebag, awesome, mean…) but maybe never good. Robin’s words and expression caused a smile to spread over Steve’s face and he was feeling the little tears in his eyes collecting. 

After a few short seconds of him and Robin sitting down and smiling the door flung open. The kids one by one walked out of the house. Then, they walked around and over Steve and Robin to lead themselves to Steve’s car. By now Steve knew they were definitely going to fight over who was going to get the shotgun. 

So he yelled:

_“Shotgun goes to Max today.”_ and smiled at Max to which she replied with a tiny smile too. That was all Steve could do. It was no help at all, he knew that but at least he got a smile out of her.

None of the kids groaned, which was a move unlike their nature, but they had grown too and they knew exactly why he gave Max the front seat. So Mike, Lucas and Dustin squished to the back seat.

Robin got up giving a little nod to Jonathan to say bye and shouted at the guys:

_“You better leave me some room at the back shitheads.”_

Steve got up too and was about to walk over to the car when Jonathan said:

_“Steve…”_ in a quiet voice. 

Steve didn’t have the mental capacity that day, especially after his conversation with Robin, to have this talk with Jonathan. Plus, like he said he thought Jonathan had the right to be mad at him. 

So he cut him:

_“I know.”_ he said in a quiet voice too. _“And I’m sorry, for everything.”_ he added. 

Then, he gave Jonathan a little nod like Robin did only with an additional smile and walked over to his car without giving the other boy a chance to reply. 

_“Alright dip shits I’m choosing the music so get ready.”_ he said as he opened the door. 

The kids didn’t protest-another move unlike their nature. 

Steve looked over at Max who was wearing Lucas’s hoodie despite the hotness of summer days. He checked the other kids in the mirror and saw that Mike was watching El with worry in his eyes the same way Lucas was watching Max with worry in his eyes. Dustin had taken off his cap and was playing with it to distract himself. El and Will were standing at the door next to Jonathan looking just so exhausted. He shared a look with Robin who was noticing the same things too. Steve closed his eyes for a second before starting the car. He realized this time going back to normal, if they ever had one, wasn’t going to be easy. 

As he put the car in reverse to get out of the Byers driveway Robin was trying to cheer the kids up with a crazy story. He wasn’t alone in this anymore; he had the help of Robin. One good thing that came out of the summer of ’85 was that Steve Harrington had got himself a new best friend.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it!!! let me know what you think! 
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr at youleavebehindmemories.tumblr.com
> 
> i thought about the parallel of steve calling will queer to jonathan and how accepting he was of robin (as any decent human being should be) then this was born to show his character development with a journey through his mind
> 
> i plan on writing more of the steve x robin friendship
> 
> i also started to write another fic following the days and weeks before the 3 month jump showing steve's interactions with mostly the kids and robin.


End file.
